Dear Angelenos: Would you like to save $10,000 this year? Move to a walkable neighborhood and leave your car at home. While this may be obvious—and unrealistic in many parts of our sprawling town—the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD) is hoping to change the game with a new toolkit aimed at improving areas of Los Angeles in close proximity to transit stops. The CTOD, funded through a CalTrans grant and sponsored by Metro, has prepared evaluations of all 71 existing and proposed stations associated with heavy rail, light rail, and busways in the city. Utilizing the findings of those studies along with information gleaned from focus groups, the report offers strategies for expanding and creating new transit oriented districts around Los Angeles.

“District” will replace “development” in the TOD nomenclature, at least that’s the center is hoping as it strives for more organic strategies in the future, eschewing the top-down, Robert Moses-like approach of the past. While the biggest savings and benefits in the TOD system come through a reduced dependence on cars, some advocates believe adding additional parking at transit stations is the best way forward, at least in the short term. With Measure R raising $40 billion for transit-related projects over 30 years, and Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan solidified, this new toolkit will hopefully influence positive growth around Los Angeles’ transit lines as they expand. Clearly, this fresh thinking is needed, as Christopher Hawthorne recently highlighted LA’s lagging standards.